Being early is a curse in a world where everybody is late. Not only do you waste time waiting for people, you end up being the greeting committee, making small talk, introducing people. Almost no one is on time., so I’ve trained myself to…be on time, as opposed to early. But now with so many time-wasters, most especially the smartphone, I’m finding it hard to even be on time.

I’m old.
I remember when my mother was thrilled when she qualified for the senior discount. Baby boomers are horrified.

Henrik Ibsen trained to be a pharmacist. Henrik Ibsen was the artistic director of the Christiana Theatre and it went bankrupt.

It’s hard not to take the easy way out. Used to be our parents told us to be doctors or lawyers. Now college graduates go into finance because they want a safety net. But to wake up and decide to follow your heart…everybody talks about it, very few do it. Because it’s just too risky, especially in the arts.

With the recent attack on French satirical newspaper the writer Charlie Hebdo has exposed some risks to Humor….

First we had the sword slicing off of a hand holding a pen and then a cartoonist was shown in full body armor with the slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On.”

The world has been doing satirical humor for centuries and previously things against the “monarch” were dealt with and could have ended in death… TODAY everyone seems to be offending society….

The internet… is causing… well…. COLISSION of the MINDS….

From Islam to North Korea.

North Korea’s response… “unpardonable mockery of our sovereignty and dignity of our supreme leader” seems light in the wake of killing of 12 people at the paper’s office when then stating “We have avenged the prophet.”

I guess we just simply need to remember that sometimes humor has … consequences.

I applaud the declaration “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie). But is this causing censorship?

Then there was this from Mad Magazine….

“By the simple act of appearing on camera denouncing the terrorists and defending the rights of cartoonists and satirists, would I be drawing a target on my back and the backs of my colleagues?” he said. “Unfortunately these days, those are not unfounded fears.”

“On the other hand, come Monday morning, my staff and I will be back at work on the next issue of Mad.

Here’s a simple arithmetic question: A bat and ball cost a dollar and ten cents. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

Most people will respond quickly and confidently, insisting the ball costs ten cents. This answer is both obvious and wrong. (The correct answer is five cents for the ball and a dollar and five cents for the bat.)

Decisions seem to depend on a long list of mental shortcuts, which often lead to foolish decisions. These shortcuts aren’t a faster way of doing the math; they’re a way of skipping the math altogether. In the above arithmetic lesson we tend to default to the answer that requires the least mental effort.

In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?

Your first response is probably to take a shortcut, and to divide the final answer by half. That leads you to twenty-four days. But that’s wrong. The correct solution is forty-seven days.

Most of what you learned in school you’ve already forgotten.
You lament they didn’t have calculators in school when you were forced to use a slide rule.

If you’re working for the man, it’s just a matter of time before you lose your job.

You probably won’t make as much money as your parents.

You probably drive a worse car every time you get a new one. Once upon a time you could afford a Volvo, now you drive a Camry.

People are dying to tell you their story. Ask them questions. They’ll tell you everything.

You’ll become more comfortable in your own skin.

You’ll be happier.

You’ll stop doing things you don’t want to do. Actually, this happens not long after you move out of your parents’ house.

You’ll stop being fascinated by that which consumed you previously. Sports may become meaningless.

You won’t know who the people they’re talking about in “People” and the rest of the gossip rags are, and you won’t care.

You’ll realize no one leaves their mark, except for a few people who didn’t know they were doing so, so it’s a futile pursuit.

Wrinkles only bother those who have them. Beauty changes when we get older. We’re looking for a glint in the eye, a sense of satisfaction and adventure.

If you’re up for anything, we’re attracted to you.

No one can keep a secret.

There are truly rich people and chances are you’re not one of them. Unless you’ve got a friend, you’ll rarely get the best seat, you’ll rarely get preferential treatment. You don’t want to see yourself as one of the unwashed masses, but you are.

You don’t want to be President.

Life is topsy-turvy, just because someone’s successful today, that does not mean they will be so tomorrow.

Even the best and the brightest have kids who screw up.

Not everybody has to go to college to be successful, although this is impossible for parents to accept when their children drop out.

Back to Grazers. There are some who sit home self-satisfied, saying they know what’s going on, when that’s damn near impossible.

And then there are those who not only yearn for the days of yore, they keep bitching about what is lost in the new era.

And then there are those who do their best to keep up. And they’re the majority of the population. They’re trying to cobble together a life. Trying to decide what is necessary. Whether to look for love online or in real life. Whether to turn off their devices to enrich the experience or be fearful of missing out.

It’s the culture stupid!

You might think it’s about money and quality and marketing, but the truth is the culture has changed, and those who do not adopt their companies and their products to the new culture are bound to be forgotten.

Today you can truly be famous for fifteen minutes and forgotten shortly thereafter.

The key is to sustain.

And you do this by being in front of everybody with a quality product on a regular basis.

And that’s damn hard to do.
Beyonce may be famous, but few know her new music.

And “Orange Is the New Black” may get great reviews, but who’s got 25 hours to dedicate to the show when there’s so much else to experience? Or, if you do, what else are you sacrificing?